Category Archives: Article

Young Sheng Variety Pack. The Western Tea Scene Has Loads of Young Sheng Options

Posted on March 14, 2020 by

In my first couple years of drinking pu’erh I sampled heavily. Many vendors and many different teas. While I originally did not go into it with a goal of trying specifically young pu’erh, this ended up making a pretty strong … Continue reading →

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Storage is Wicked. Long & Short Feedback Loops. Innovation in Pu’erh Storage

Posted on February 29, 2020 by

David Epstein’s book Range makes the case for generalization in a world that has become increasingly specialized. One of the ways the book categorizes areas of interest are as wicked and kind environments. Kind environments are where information and feedback … Continue reading →

Posted in Aged Pu'erh, Article, Oolong, Raw Pu'erh, Tea Learning, Tea Musings | 7 Comments

2020 Tea Progress Report

Posted on February 15, 2020 by

I’ve stored tea for around six years now in Seattle and while I’ve fussed a bit over a few small things, the methodology has been overall consistent. The pu’erh has been stored in an enclosed container with Boveda packs to … Continue reading →

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Five Things I Like & Dislike 12. Measuring Pu’erh Conditions, Steaming Iron Cakes, Anonymous Vendors

Posted on February 1, 2020 by

Five More Things I like & Dislike. Measuring Pu’erh Conditions (Relative Humidity Generated) One smart thing that I believe Marco was the first to do was measure the condition/relative humidity generated by cakes (see conditioning experiment). This isn’t difficult and … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Raw Pu'erh, Ripe Pu'erh | 2 Comments

Marco Hotbox Experiment (Bosch) Comparison

Posted on January 18, 2020 by

The most interesting storage experiment in the west is a heated cooler filled with mylar bags of pu’erh in Toronto. This is of course Marco’s hotbox experiment where cakes are conditioned to generate 63-69RH and then stored at fixed temperatures. … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Drinking Report, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged | 4 Comments

2019 Tea & TeaDB Reflections

Posted on January 4, 2020 by

2019 may be one of the more boring years from TeaDB to write about. I drank tea, bought a little, Denny and I continued our episode per week pace, and I wrote a bit. My habits are more settled, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Aged Oolong, Article, Oolong, Raw Pu'erh, Ripe Pu'erh, Taiwanese Oolong, Wuyi Oolong | 9 Comments

2019 Pu’erh from Western Vendors are More Expensive Than Ever. Three Ways to Look at Price.

Posted on December 14, 2019 by

I’ve been updating a spreadsheet on pu’erh prices on release for the past few years in order to get an idea of tea being offered to western consumers and any possible trends. The well-known popular narrative is that fresh pu’erh … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Raw Pu'erh | Tagged , , , , , | 20 Comments

VORT & VOATO. Nerdy Tea Comparisons.

Posted on November 30, 2019 by

VORP/WAR In sports analytics (baseball and basketball), there’s a couple of new(ish) advanced metrics that have caught traction over the past decade. One is VORP, which stands for Value Over Replacement Player and measures a player’s contribution compared with what … Continue reading →

Posted in Article, Oolong, Raw Pu'erh, Ripe Pu'erh | 6 Comments

Five Things I Like & Dislike. Short-Term Pumidors, B&B Sheng of the Day, Buying Pu’erh on Amazon

Posted on November 16, 2019 by

Five things I like & dislike.

Posted in Article, Oolong, Raw Pu'erh, Ripe Pu'erh | 8 Comments

Storage Methodology & Odor-Free Storage. Things to Watch Out For in a few Popular Western Storage Methods.

Posted on November 2, 2019 by

One pumidor-related topic I contemplate is the correct way to think about the chosen container. Given we store a tea at identical temperature and humidity (say 70F/65RH), if we store the same tea for five years in two different ways, … Continue reading →

Posted in Aged Pu'erh, Article, Raw Pu'erh, Ripe Pu'erh | 8 Comments